exit interview

I had a conversation with Chris once about why good product thinkers are like good novelists. In both cases, didacticism is the enemy. Designing consumer internet products requires viewing humans as we really are, not how we wish we were.

Platform evils are often projections of very human sins.

Many concepts that sound good on paper are infeasible to implement, or simply don’t produce the expected results. It’s frustrating when that happens, of course, but the pace of experimentation and learning at a startup is unparalleled. I think this is an especially important form of rigor for theorycels like me. Building product forces a different ... See more

I’d spent summer 2020 recruiting for journalism jobs, of which there were none

Substack identified a business model (subscriptions) that aligns reader, writer, and company incentives.

As for the project itself, the tongue-in-cheek tagline I’ve been using is “Dwarkesh meets Ezra Klein but a girl”: a solo newsletter-podcast on technology, politics, and culture. There are some specific topics I’m especially eager to dive deep on (and even do proper reporting!8), but I want to make space for plans to change in the next month of expl... See more

Put through that process, reality usually hits like a truck. Many concepts that sound good on paper are infeasible to implement, or simply don’t produce the expected results. It’s frustrating when that happens, of course, but the pace of experimentation and learning at a startup is unparalleled. I think this is an especially important form of rigor... See more